“I certainly appreciate that we do need to embrace new technology. But what I see with the current auction environment that we run is that the face-to-face aspect is so critical,” he said.

“It’s that relationship that’s built up through an auction campaign with buyers. I think that’s vitally important to maximising the right outcome for our sellers. I’m not convinced that you can orchestrate that in an online environment.”

Auction Services director Rob Trovato told Real Estate Business that the emergence of online auctions would eventually threaten businesses like his own.

However, Mr Trovato said that traditional auctions would remain dominant for years to come because they would continue to be favoured by agents.

“Agents are always looking to see how they can leverage one property to win the next piece of business,” he said.

“When you’re doing it on-site, you’ve got the neighbours coming to have a look, and even if they’re not in real estate mode right now, if you have a positive outcome, when they’re thinking of selling down the track they’ll remember the auction that happened in their street.”